We are deeply saddened by the news of a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 hit Gaziantep/Kahramanmaras provinces at 04:17 am (01:17 GMT) on 6 February 2023, and affected at least 10 provinces in southern Turkey. The earthquake was followed by multiple aftershocks with the highest being of magnitude 7.5.

An unfortunate combination of a few factors make this a terrible catastrophe.

- This once-in-500-years earthquake cycle ruptured the South East Anatolian fault line in multiple locations across a 250 Km stretch, releasing energy equivalent to that of 130 atom bombs.

- There were two separate earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 or greater within 18 hours and dozens of lesser aftershocks, yet still above 6.0, down the entire distance of the fault line.

- The latest World Health Organisation predictions are the death toll to reach 20,000. Hundreds of thousands of survivors have been left homeless in freezing weather, without electricity or gas.

- Over 10 million people live in this region – a figure equal to almost the entire population of neighbouring Greece.

- Separate from this number, almost 2 million Syrian refugees are also currently residing on the Turkish side of the earthquake zone.

- More than 3,000 large buildings have collapsed, including apartment blocks, hospitals and their intensive care units, elderly care centres, and administrative buildings.

The Kahramanmaras Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund to support civil society organisations working on the ground to provide immediate relief and medium to long term recovery to survivors of the earthquake.

The mission of the Turkey Mosaik Foundation is to support civil society organisations in Turkey by serving as a bridge between donors and grassroot organizations. We provide funding for charities, projects and programmes through fundraising activities in the UK. We are non-governmental and politically non-affiliated.

Please join me in supporting their incredible efforts. Every little will help!